Episode 221: Slow Fashion & Inclusivity with Nico and Donnelle

Welcome to Clotheshorse, the podcast that currently doesn’t have any running water.

I’m your host Amanda and this is episode 221.  As I mentioned in last week’s episode with Sushmita of Ethical Fat Fashion, the next few episodes are part of a series about inclusivity within the slow fashion movement.  The reality is this: in order to dismantle fast fashion (and all of the egregious waste, human exploitation, and harm to our planet that comes with it) we must get most people to adopt a slow fashion way of life.  And as we have discussed here many times, each person’s version of slow fashion can and will look differently: 

• Shopping secondhand first
• Making clothes (and everything else) last as long as possible with care and repair.
• Sewing and making our own clothing, etc
• Upcycling and repurposing
• Shopping from ethical brands and small businesses (especially if they are local)
• And just generally being really mindful of the stuff in our lives, how long it’s in our lives, and where it goes when we are done with it.

No matter what combination of things a person chooses as part of their version of slow fashion, it all results in changing our relationship with “stuff” (whether that’s clothing, throw pillows, lipsticks, whatever it is that we are overconsuming), and as part of changing that relationship with stuff, everyone will be buying less new stuff in the first place.

In my opinion, slow fashion should be everything that regular old fashion (which is essentially almost completely fast fashion at this point) is not…It should be inclusive, diverse, welcoming, fun, and creative.  It’s not about selling a commodity, it’s about making people feel good, included, excited, confident. It’s about fun and exploration..for all people of all sizes, genders, ages, and backgrounds. The very definition of inclusivity is “including all types of people.”

And while slow fashion has made a lot of progress towards a more welcoming, inclusive community over the past few years, it still has a long way to go.  Until everyone can see themselves as part of it, we will not be successful in our work toward a better future.

So I wanted to end this year (and begin next year) with conversations about where we are with a more inclusive slow fashion community and where we should go next.  I think 2025 is going to be a pivotal year for what happens next:

• A large social trend away from Amazon, Temu, SHEIN
• A large social shift into shopping small (and local)
• Even more people getting into mending, shopping secondhand, making their own clothing
• Enough people getting sick of the egregiously low quality clothing currently offered by most retailers that these brands are forced to do better
• And legislation passing (like the Fashion Act) that will finally regulate this entire industry that is out of control.

I feel hopeful that we are about to see some major change happen next year.  Why? Because we are already seeing promising momentum forward:

• Starbucks and Amazon workers are on strike right now
• More media outlets are talking about the low quality of clothing
• We see more and more people making “slow fashion” lifestyle changes.

Meanwhile, the fashion industry is as clueless and stuck as ever, particularly when it comes to inclusivity, in terms of age, race, disability, and of course, body size.   In October, Vogue Business shared a size inclusivity report based on the Spring/Summer runway shows.  And what they saw was not surprising, but still, it remains depressing.  I’ll share the full report in the show notes, but this paragraph really summarizes it:

“Of the 8,763 looks presented across 208 shows and presentations, 0.8 per cent were plus-size (US 14+), 4.3 per cent were mid-size (US 6-12) and 94.9 per cent were straight-size (US 0-4). Plus-size representation is level with last season, at 0.8 per cent. Mid-size representation has inched up from 3.7 per cent — partly driven by the use of muscular men in co-ed shows, who typically present as mid-size. But there also appeared to be more straight-size models at the extremely thin end of the scale.”

Emma Davidson, the fashion features director at Dazed, told Vogue Business, “It has felt like brands were turning their back on inclusive casting for a while, but this season, I sat in my seat a few times at shows where bigger models had previously been present, and it was so disheartening to see no representation — this season feels like the nail in the coffin.”

Tora Northman, the head of TikTok at High Snobiety really summarized where and how the fashion industry shows itself as being foolishly out of touch and stuck in the past:

“It’s sad to see an industry that made a lot of progress over the past few years revert back to the toxic, unhealthy ways of the past, but it feels like those in charge still see being thin as being beautiful and being more ‘fashion’.”

What’s interesting to me is that even if the fashion industry feels like some clueless dinosaur, churning out constant collections and showing them on skinny, young white models…seriously I saw a high fashion billboard in Tokyo that seemed to feature a 12 year old…ridiculous, right? But even if fashion is just so decrepit and out of touch, it still impacts everything we see in stores, in television and movies and on social media. The influencers are getting skinnier, all while continuing to show us more stuff we should buy every day.  It all feels so tired to me, but it’s still affecting all of us.

So if slow fashion is the opposite of the fashion industry (and it should be), then it needs to stop centering thin, young, white cis gendered women in brand marketing, in social media posts, even in the kind of content  shared by the organizations within the sustainable fashion realm. Start to take a look at the content created by those big accounts: it primarily focuses on the same type of person over and over again. If you don’t fit into that box, you don’t feel like you can be a part of it.  And trust me, I say that because I have felt that way, too.

A few weeks ago, right after I returned from Japan, I recorded a round table discussion with some people who I think I are working really hard to to make slow fashion more inclusive and therefore, more successful at achieving its goals:

• Marlee, a personal style coach and host of Style Me Slowly (a podcast that shares sustainable, size inclusive brands and their stories)
• Nico, the founder and CEO of Phoria, “a platform to help people find what fits their bodies, their style, and their priorities—and how we can support each other in that journey.”
• Itohan, founder of HNI Collective, “a fashion service agency with a focus on size inclusivity and sustainability”
• Donnelle, the creator of The Philly Plus Swap and of the founders of Philly FatCon
• And someone you all know very well, Maggie Greene (the Halloween Queen) a Clotheshorse All-Star and someone who works very hard to help people get dressed in a way that makes them feel their best.

That discussion will be coming your way in the new year (and it’s an awesome convo btw), but first, I want to get started by giving you a chance to get to know the participants better. So this week, you will hear one-on-one conversations with Nico and Donnelle.  Both of them are so smart, so thoughtful, I can’t wait for you to hear what they have to say.  And they both work on very cool projects that are life changing for so many people.

Okay, one last thing before I finish this up and run some final holiday meal errands: I don’t know about you, but it’s impossible to hear what Nico and Donnelle are doing and NOT feel like things are changing in a really good way. That super smart and talented people are making it happen. And what they are doing is so different from what we are kind of sold every day, right? Going back to the top of this episode, fashion is trying to sell us the same old bullshit: low quality clothing, an endless parade of trends that ultimately kind of mean nothing, all in sizes 0-12 (at best), so that it’s only dressing a subset of people.  It’s just so stupid and tired.  That was the past. The future is what so many passionate, talented people are building within the slow fashion community.

A few days ago, I was chit chatting (via text) with a friend who has her own slow fashion brand.  And we were talking about how hard it is to find our place within the existing “sustainable fashion” universe. She’s young, thin, and beautiful, so it’s a little easier for her to be welcomed into those groups. But she feels disenchanted with where it’s going, what it prioritizes.  I told her how I (almost) always feel like an outsider when I’m involved in some of the larger events. I’m too working class with my gnarly cuticles (don’t even ask me about my fingernails), my imperfect teeth, and my scuffed up shoes. I’m neither a young beautiful influencer nor a fashion professional with luxury brand experience and/or a law degree. And let’s not even get into how my personal style is usually not a match for those gatherings.  

But I also told my friend that I think the real change will happen thanks to all of us who are on the outside of the current standard in “sustainable fashion.” Because that’s too aligned with what fashion currently is, and it’s not making a lot of progress. Meanwhile we are solving problems in new and innovative ways. We are building new things that actually change lives (like clothing swaps and brand directories, sharing information, teaching people how to mend, sew, upcycle etc).

I said to my friend “I wish we could just build a big coalition of people who get shit done because we have the talent and motivation to do it.”

And she said, “sure, I agree, but how do we do that in a way that ensures we aren’t taking on even more unpaid work and getting burned out?”

Here’s where it gets sticky:  a lot of the biggest names and organizations within sustainable fashion exist and get the attention because they have money. And access to more money. They aren’t running an organization AND working a full time job to support themselves.  They aren’t selling their clothes so they can fund their podcast or working 16 hours a day to do everything on their list. 

That’s the part I’m still trying to figure out: how do we pull together, lead this revolution, and not totally destroy our minds and bodies in the process? I haven’t figured that out yet, but it’s on my mind. The limitations that we face are money, time, and physical endurance.  And I don’t know how to fix those.  You know that meme that goes something like “I won’t tell anyone when I win the lottery, but there will be signs?” Well, you’ll know that I won the lottery because I will be helping small businesses for free.  I’ll be creating a foundation that teaches people how to sew, mend, and do laundry.  I’ll be figuring out how to create a network of free childcare.  And I’ll finally own a home and it will include a huge barn for stray cats.

But until that lottery money comes in, I am left with figuring out how all of us who have often been unseen by fashion create a better world with only some limited resources and our own talent to get it done.  I know there’s power in numbers, I know there is incredible passion and expertise within these numbers, now we just have to figure out how to get organized. I’ll keep thinking about it, and I hope you will, too.